According to a recent survey, approximately 13 percent of all employers in the U.S use personality tests to assess people when hiring. The majority of these being the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test, a personality test developed by Katherine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers.This test places you in one of 16 personality types based on your answers. The widespread usage of this test can become an issue due to the fact that the Myers-Briggs test is already largely controversial for its inability to accurately depict one’s personality type. Yet, so many companies still use this test. In fact, Myers-Briggs makes around 20 million dollars in revenue each year. But there are many issues with the accuracy of this test, especially when used for hiring. …show more content…
That would mean I’m introverted instead of extroverted, I use my intuition instead of sensing, I’m more of a thinker instead of a feeler, and I prefer perceiving instead of judging. This however, would be incorrect, given my actual personality is in more of a middle-ground on every one of these attributes. In fact, the majority of people are somewhere around the middle when it comes to these attributes. This black & white perspective on personality traits can be misleading and inaccurate when employers are hiring based on the results of this test. So why do employers use it? Well, hiring people is much simpler when there are only 16 personality types to choose from. Need someone who’s amazing at customer service? Just hire someone who’s an ESFP. Need someone to present an important report? Hire somebody who’s extroverted. To employers, hiring is much easier if they can just pick and choose what traits they want in the future
When companies hire solely for the physical features of certain qualified and chosen people, they are attempting to assist their business. By doing so, companies do not look at the personality,
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is an evaluative personality tool that is widely used throughout the world today. It is important for a tool that is popularly utilized in a variety of fields and at numerous professional institutions worldwide to be a credible one. So, is the MBTI really the valid reliable personality inventory instrument it claims to be? Evaluating this tool will show that empirically sound evidence does not exist to support the MBTI as an accurate, reliable, or valid instrument for profiling one’s personality type.
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) “is an introspective self-report questionnaire designed to indicate psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions” (13). It is one of several personality assessments that is popular among modern mental health experts throughout the world. Currently, it is estimated that the MBTI is “taken by more than two million people per year and is translated into 16 languages (10). “The purpose of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality inventory is to make the theory of psychological types described by C. G. Jung understandable and useful in people 's lives” (4).
Who are you? Many fortune cookies, horoscopes, and other whimsical devices attempt to tell us our personalities, or our combination of traits and behaviors that make up who we are. However, psychologists today deviate from those unsubstantiated methods and have concocted various personality tests that give us a better understanding of who we are. One such test is called the Myers-Briggs personality test. Based on theories by Carl Jung, but primarily created by Isabel Briggs Myers and her mother, Katharine Cook Briggs, the test gives people a standardized survey of questions to answer. Standardized, meaning the test is given and scored in the exact same way every time to give unbiased and accurate results. It scores people in four pairs of characteristics, so there is a total of 16 possible personality types. Each pair of characteristics are opposites and a person can fall anywhere between the extreme end of one opposite to the extreme end of the other. The pairs are extroverted and introverted, sensing and intuition, thinking and feeling, finally judging and perceiving. A person can have strong, moderate or weak tendencies towards a preference. (Rathus, 2010, p. 420) There is some criticism of the Myers-Briggs test however, not everyone fits into the categories. People may answer according to socially acceptable norms instead of their honest answers. Not all of the theories were proven, Carl Jung made many observations and deductions but they weren’t formally
After taking a Myers-Briggs assessment my mind has been changed. The very first time I took any kind of personal assessment was my second year of college. I had taken my general education classes and it was time to pick a major. The thing is, what 19 year old know what they want to do for the rest of their lives? None I tell you! So I went to an advisor and was given the test. Many seemingly random questions the results were in; you can be a doctor or lawyer or astronaut they said! The least helpful 45 minutes of my life I gave to that advisor.
Job markets often look for an ideal candidate. Many wish to hire workers who would appeal to the other workers including the clientele and consuming industry. Unfortunately it might be seen as
Other team provided solid arguments and evidence to support the “Con” point of view of the personality tests. They argued that Myers Briggs test was not designed for hiring at all. Mainly it was designed for training and development of the work teams. Even our text says that Myer’s Briggs should not be used as the selection tool for hiring. They also made a solid point by mentioning that tests can be taken advantage of. It can be adjusted to the desired results or faked.
According to Myers Briggs Personality Type Indicator, my personality type is INTJ (Introverted, intuitive, thinker, judging). Some of the highlight light of an INTJ the that they are “vision oriented, quietly innovative, insightful, conceptual, logical. Seek to understand, critical decisive, independent, determinate, pursues competence and improvement”. After taking the test my score was the following Introverted 12%, intuitive 22%, thinking 1% and judgment 25%.I think that the test was pretty close to my personality because I do tend to be more on the introvert side although I can be very chatty when a topic interested me.
I chose the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator topic for my paper because I find it interesting. I have taken the actual Myers-Briggs Test through the career-counseling center on campus, and it gave me a bit of direction in my life. However, I thought it would be more useful to discover the background on it and see how it functions within business. I think using an inventory can tell people a great deal about themselves. Similar to the collection of inventories we have taken in class, they give invaluable insight to the way one works, thinks, and acts. This has basis in my area of study, psychology. I think knowing they way one thinks and communicates can help people reach and expand
Companies have started to use personality tests in the past five years so that they can find a potential employee’s strengths and weaknesses. If questions and answers are quite accurate and test is done properly it can help an employer to find more about person’s advantages and disadvantages. It is very important to know because one of the most important points is that most of personality tests help to recognize unqualified candidates. “Although experts warn that many personality assessments don't deliver what they promise, legitimate scientifically validated tests are helping employers evaluate job candidates to select those best suited for particular positions. Other tests are designed to measure intelligence, honesty, management aptitude and other qualities.”
Personality is a challenging trait to measure and many personality tests do not stand the test of time once they are applied and researched. Why then, do we find it important to measure personality? Isabel Briggs Myers once said “It is up to each person to recognize his or her true preferences.” I find this statement to be true in theory and in practice. In today’s social media, one of the most common online quizzes or assessments I come across, is personality test. There appears to be countless ways to find out one’s personality type, but many have not been proven true or accurate. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, also known as the MBTI and it is a well-known and established, personality inventory. It is a way to do, as Isabel Briggs-Myers said, to find and know your own preferences. The MBTI is based on Carl Jung theories of personality types and commonly used today. It was developed by the mother-daughter team of Katharine Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers in order to assess personality types. The MBTI was published in 1975 by the Consulting Psychologists Press, Inc. (The Myers & Briggs Foundation - Isabel Briggs Myers 2014).
The Myers and Briggs Analysis is a series of questions that when answered are examined and grouped together in order to determine the personalities of those taking this test. This particular test can result in sixteen different outcomes or types of personalities, which is determined by four different categories that judge if you are introverted or extroverted, use your senses or your intuition, your choice to think or use your feelings, and finally if you are judgmental or perceptive. These series of questions are designed to judge our personalities and help us to determine which career pathways we will be most suited for based on our personality traits and abilities to work well with others, which is important
Based on the work of Carl Jung, Isabel Myers and Katherine Briggs developed the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator, a self-inventory geared toward helping individuals determine their personality types and individual areas of strength. “By helping people understand themselves, Myers and Briggs believed that they could help people select occupations that were best suited to their personality types and lead healthier, happier lives” (Cherry, 2015). This test, through helping me explore my own personality, likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses, and various preferences and compatibilities, has been instrumental in affirming my
The Myers Briggs test is simply an IQ test. A test where it can help shape and form your beliefs through a bunch of assessment like questions. Similar to an assessment when you feel out job application. They test you on hoe you would handle certain situations, how would you react, and why you should get the job. On the flipside, I also think it can be very beneficial to see if your personality matches the person you are and/or perceived to be from others on the outside looking in. Lastly, if your score falls in line with a minimum crop of people, I think the test will help you improve in those certain areas. Not to get discouraged or anything like that but just for our on sake. We all need improvement. Nobody is perfect. We all are still finding
Many employers use tests like the one found on the personality page website. One of their goals is to find employees with the best personality for the job. Using these tests can save a company a lot of time and effort when hiring new employees. For example, “Overnight Transportation in Atlanta found that using such tests reduced their on- the-job delinquency by 50%–100%” (Livingston, p. 54). This is a huge drop saves them so much time and money by hiring more reliable people. Though there are some downsides to these personality tests by employers. To get the most accurate assessment you have to be honest when taking the test. When an employer is looking for the best personality for the job a perspective employee has motives not to be honest. “A complicating factor is that people filling out the survey do not have a strong incentive to be honest. In fact, they have a greater incentive to guess what the job requires and answer the questions in a way they think the company is looking for” (Livingston, p. 55). This is